World Highlights

¤ Nato and Afghan government troops have forced Taliban insurgents out of a southern Afghan district after a two-week operation in which Nato said hundreds of militants were killed.

The Taliban and their militant allies have unleashed a wave of attacks on government and foreign troops this year. Security forces have responded with a series of offensives in the south and east.

¤ The White House, facing a Senate Republican revolt over CIA treatment of terrorist suspects, said that a compromise can be reached over legislation needed to continue the interrogation programme.

The White House wants Congress to pass a law that would allow the CIA to use tough questioning methods which it says have protected the country from attack, but which critics say are tantamount to torture.

¤ Israel's cabinet appointed a commission to investigate the way the government and military handled the Lebanon war, bowing to calls for an inquiry but rejecting veterans' demands for an independent probe.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has come under fire from critics who say he launched an ill-prepared campaign in Lebanon that failed to crush the Lebanese Hizbollah guerrilla group after it abducted two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid in July.

¤ Busloads of tourists left the southern Thai town of Hat Yi and many others cancelled their trip after a series of bombs on a busy street killed four people and injured more than 60.

Authorities said they expected the latest violence to hit the local tourism industry hard, just as the town popular with Malaysians and Singaporeans was recovering from a bomb attack on its airport last year, killing two people.